If you are renting your home from a private landlord, the leaflet called Assured and Assured Shorthold Tenancies - A guide for tenants (pdf document) may be of assistance or for information on lodging, please see Renting Rooms in Someone's Home: A Guide for People Renting from Resident Landlords (pdf document). These leaflets explain the most important features of tenants' rights and responsibilities but they are only a general guide and have been taken from the Communities and Local Government website.

If you are looking for a place to live, the website www.flatmaterooms.co.uk may be able to help or please see our housing options page.

For information on safety in your home, please see our home safety page.

Harassment and Illegal Eviction

What is Harassment?

Harassment is where a landlord, or someone else, deliberately makes life difficult for you to try to make you leave or stop you from using your legal rights. Some examples are:

• Cutting off your water, gas or electricity
• Using threatening behaviour to make you leave.
• Trying to make you sign an agreement that takes away your legal rights
• Interfering with your possessions
• Moving into part of your home

What is Illegal Eviction?

This is when someone forces you to leave your home illegally. This could be done by;

• Physically throwing you out of your home
• Changing the locks
• Stopping you from getting into part of your home.

Lawful Eviction

A landlord CAN evict an occupier lawfully depending on what sort of tenancy you have and what your rights are to stay in your home.

What Can You Do?

Get advice from the our private sector housing team or the homelessness and advice team as soon as possible. Bring in any documents or correspondence relating to your tenancy that you may have.

Keep a careful diary of everything that happens so that you can give the advisor all the details. This includes;

• Any threats made against you or any other incidents, including the date and time
• The names and addresses of any people involved, especially witnesses, including the police
• If you need medical treatment, write down the names of the doctors who examined you.

You should ALWAYS tell the police if you have been harassed or illegally evicted. Make a note of the name and number of any police officers you speak to. If you are illegally evicted at night or over the weekend you should tell the police you will make a formal report about the incident to us on the next working day. If you are homeless and in a "priority need" group (i.e. have children, are pregnant, elderly, under 18 or suffer from a serious medical condition or are disabled) then either the police or yourself can contact the Council's Careline Service (01255 222022) to see if they can arrange alternative accommodation.

If you would like any further information or help please contact the private sector housing team or the homelessness and advice team.

Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs)

A property is an HMO if it is let as a main or only home to at least three tenants, who form more than one household and who share a kitchen, bathroom or toilet. This includes properties such as houses or flats shared by a group of friends or colleagues, bedsit type accommodation with shared bathrooms and bed and breakfast type establishments for persons who have no other home.

We routinely carry out inspections of all known HMOs in the District. If conditions are not up to the required standards then the owner or manager is required to improve them. We will respond to complaints received from you, other people or services or external agencies such as Social Services.

Inspections look at the general conditions of the structure to check compliance with the standards required by the Housing Act 2004. These standards include:

• Damp and mould growth
• Excess cold or heat
• Crowding and space
• Entry by intruders
• Lighting
• Noise
• Domestic hygiene, pests and refuse
• Food safety
• Personal hygiene, sanitation and drainage
• Water supply
• Falls
• Electrical hazards
• Fire
• Structural collapse and falling elements

If you require any further information regarding Houses in Multiple Occupation, please contact the Private sector housing team as above.

The Mental Health and Housing Partnership are looking to increase what is known about the lives of the people living in HMOs (bedsit type accommodation) and how their accommodation affects their mental health. If you are a man or woman, over 18 years old, that lives in a bedsit in Clacton who would be willing to take part in the research, the MHP would like to hear from you.

For more information or to get involved, please contact Project Co-ordinator: Caroline Barratt on:

Our Benefits and Revenue Services also provides useful information for tenants or you can visit DirectGov for further advice.

If you need to you can download the free adobe reader here.